European Commission

We were sad to learn about another bankruptcy in civil aviation today – UK’s regional airline Flybe. The spread of the COVID-19 has had an important impact in accelerating the process towards the bankruptcy of the airline, which represents just one of the symptoms of a Europe-wide crisis. Decisive action needs to be taken to keep Europe moving. To prevent a complete collapse of the air transport networks in the immediate future, the EU, European countries and other key authorities such as EASA need to come up with a detailed, clear and effective contingency plan.

The ETF calls for a European directive on mandatory human rights due diligence and responsible business conduct. Companies need to finally be held accountable for the impacts of their operations, without prejudice to joint and several liability. A European directive would bring us closer to stopping violations of human rights that continue to take place in multinational operations, and their supply and subcontracting chains.

Yesterday marked the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the EU Social Dialogue Committee for Road Transport between social partners IRU and ETF. ETF and IRU reminded the EU officials that driver shortage is alarmingly increasing in the EU, with 20% of unfilled drivers’ positions in passenger and goods transport in 2019.

ETF attends first meeting, hopefully, the first of many to come, with EU Commissioner for Transport, Adina Vălean. We hope that this is the start of fruitful cooperation that will shape the future of Fair Transport for Europe.

On 14 January, the European Commission launched First phase consultation of Social Partners on a possible action addressing the challenges related to fair minimum wages. While the ETF strongly believes that workers of Europe need a pay rise, we don’t support simplistic approaches and half-baked solutions that could endanger the autonomy of social partners around the continent. A simple prescriptive mechanism cannot solve wage stagnation – instead, we need to address the core causes of it, such as precarious work, anti-union measures, digitalisation, and austerity.

The European Transport Workers’ Federation acknowledges that an agreement was reached on the Mobility Package between the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament this morning, in trilogue. The agreement doesn’t include all elements the ETF has fought for but it does represent progress towards the declared goals and ambitions of the Package.

Ursula von der Leyen has appointed Violeta Bulc’s successor and the European Commission for 2019-2024 is set to have Ms. Adina Vălean as Transport Commissioner. ETF calls on Ms. Vălean to take Transport Workers seriously.

The EU Social Partners in Sea Fisheries ETF and Europêche adopted a joint resolution on the socio-economic impact of the EU landing obligation on the fishing industry. They agreed to call on the European Commission to revise the EU landing obligation so that it is consistent with other legal instruments adopted by the EU, in particular, Directive 2017/159 and the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.

Starting 1 November 2019, Denmark will tighten its rules for foreign buses and coaches. Foreign buses will be allowed to legally cabotage for seven consecutive days in Denmark per calendar month.

Tomorrow, October 16, 2019, the European Labour Authority will start its activities by holding its first Management Board meeting in Brussels, in the presence of Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission President; Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice President-Designate of the European Commission, and Marianne Thyssen, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility. The European Transport Workers’ Federation will represent the European trade union federations on the ELA Management Board.